Time For A Catch Up … July 23, 2008

Well, it’s certainly been a hectic time these past few weeks so I thought it might be time to catch up on a few things.

I’ve just returned from attending and presenting at the Oracle Days 2008 Conference held by the Puget Sound Oracle User Group in Seattle, USA (well Bellevue actually). I had a great time, met some really nice people, caught up with a few old faces and generally had a ball. The conference had some great presentations and deserved a much better turn out although I suspect the beautiful weather made many people consider outdoor activities. My presentations were well attended and received great feedback so I was really pleased with my personal contributions. I would strongly recommend people check out this event when it’s held again next year. Thanks to Daniel Morgan and the gang for looking after me so incredibly well and to Tom Kyte for teaching me the difference between a torch and a flashlight !!

The results are in for the Oracle Mix nominated presentations for this year’s Oracle OpenWorld and my Indexing Secrets presentation has been selected, finally coming in at Number 7. I’m still not sure I can get to OpenWorld this year as finances are somewhat tight at the moment but fingers crossed, I can somehow get myself across the Pacific Ocean again this year and do this presentation for those of you attending. Still working on that one, here’s hoping …

Enrollments for my Index Internals Seminar “Australian Tour” in September are going well. Currently I’m featured on the Australian Oracle University home page so that dreadful photo can now be seen all over the place. There are still places available but don’t leave it too late …

David Bowie has released probably one of his finest concerts on CD this week, David Bowie Live Santa Monica ’72:

I remember when I first bought this concert featuring David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust during his first US tour in 1972 on a bootleg many many years ago. I loved it then and I love it now with some great packaging and a nice clean sound. David Bowie at his absolute best !! Been listening to it ever since I got back from the US.

Finally, a big thank you to all those who made comments and suggestions for the blog moving forward. Will definitely try and incorporate as many of them as I can in the coming weeks, months, years🙂

A number of us were taken out for a really nice dinner and poor Tom had the misfortune to sit next to me!! It was a real fancy resturant and they did something which I’d never seen before. Those of us who ordered a steak were asked to cut into the steak and the waiter used a little “flashlight” to inspect the meat to ensure it was cooked as requested.

I got a bit of a giggle out of this. At a later point in the meal, the waiter came around and asked if all was going well and I jokenly said you might need to bring a “torch” as I’m not too sure about this bit of my steak. Anyway the waiter looked a little shocked and asked if I wanted the meat to be cooked at the table.

Tom explained that in the US, a “flashlight” is the hand held thing that shines a light whereas a “torch” is a burning thing that emits a flame🙂